Plan someone's first week, not their first day
Onboarding is concentrated in day one, which is the day nobody retains anything.
The BeingKind editorsPublished How this is written
Why it lands
The first day is a blur of names, systems and being walked around; by day three the shepherd has gone back to their own work and the new person is alone with a login and no idea who to ask. Almost all the loneliness and most of the early mistakes happen in that second week, which nobody plans for because the official process has ended.
How
Put three short things in the calendar across the first fortnight — a coffee on day four, a walk-through on day eight, a check-in at three weeks. Say you are the stupid-questions person and mean it. Introduce them to one person outside their team.
This is part of
A written list of what else helps in the same situation.
Related
Leave a note for your mail carrier
The person who walks to your door most days almost never hears from the people who live behind it.
5 minutesFreeA stranger2 people did this
Add alt text to your images
An image without a description is a blank space to anyone using a screen reader. Writing one takes twenty seconds.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Leave the accessible toilet alone
It is not the spare one when there is a queue. For some people it is the only one in the building.
5 minutesFreeA stranger2 people did this
Read the form out loud for someone
Around one in six adults reads below the level most official forms are written at.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Correct your own mistake where you made it
Misinformation spreads further than corrections. Correcting yourself in the original place is the only version that works.
5 minutesFreeA stranger